Anglican Apology of the Ancien Regime in England

1338 httpsdoiorg102163811701spbu022019411

Вестник СПбГУ История 2019 Т 64 Вып 4

copy Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет 2019

Anglican Apology of the Ancien Regime in EnglandV N Baryshnikov V N Borisenko M S Stetckevich

For citation Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Stetckevich M S Anglican Apology of the Ancien Regime in England Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University History 2019 vol 64 iss 4 рр 1338ndash1354 httpsdoiorg102163811701spbu022019411

Following J Clark many scholars now use the term ldquoancien regimerdquo (ldquoold orderrdquo) in relation to England of ldquothe long 18th centuryrdquo (1689ndash1832) The article deals with the question of the forms and methods of the apology of the ancien regime in England by the clergy of the Established Church which was one of its most important pillars Focusing on the four final decades of the ldquolong 18th centuryrdquo the authors come to the conclusion that the defense of the unequal order of society as God-given preaching obedience and submission to state power were considered by the Church of England as one of its most important functions At the end of the 18th century such position was quite consistent with the prevailing public sentiment determined by the fear of the possibility of repetition of the events of the French Revolution in England At the beginning of the 19th century the Anglican apology of the old order already received less support During the struggle for the Parliamentary reform (1830ndash1832) the position of the Anglican Church caused an unprecedented wave of anticlericalism At the same time the number of supporters of the reforms among clergy as well as among those who tried to revive the Church of England as a sacral institution (Oxford movement) increased significantly In Victorian era with the fading of the ancien regime the clergy gradually ceased to consider the function of its protection a priority and concentrated on the implementation of internal church reforms

Vladimir N Baryshnikov mdash Doctor in History Professor St Petersburg State University 7ndash9 Univer-sitetskaya nab St Petersburg 199034 Russian Federation vbaryshnikovspburu

Victor N Borisenko mdash PhD in History Associate Professor St Petersburg State University 7ndash9 Uni-versitetskaya nab St Petersburg 199034 Russian Federation vborisenkospburu

Mikhail S Stetckevich mdash PhD in History Associate Professor St Petersburg State University 7ndash9 Uni-versitetskaya nab St Petersburg 199034 Russian Federation msteckevichspburu

Владимир Николаевич Барышников mdash д-р ист наук проф Санкт-Петербургский государ-ственный университет Российская Федерация 199034 Санкт-Петербург Университетская наб 7ndash9 vbaryshnikovspburu

Виктор Николаевич Борисенко mdash канд ист наук доцент Санкт-Петербургский государствен-ный университет Российская Федерация 199034 Санкт-Петербург Университетская наб 7ndash9 vborisenkospburu

Михаил Станиславович Cтецкевич mdash канд ист наук доцент Санкт-Петербургский государ-ственный университет Российская Федерация 199034 Санкт-Петербург Университетская наб 7ndash9 msteckevichspburu

This article was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) project No 18-011-00241 ldquoFrom Erastianism to Tractarianism the Church of England in the late 18th mdash first half of the 19th centuryrdquo

Публикация подготовлена в рамках получившего финансовую поддержку РФФИ (отделение гуманитарных и общественных наук) научного проекта 18-011-00241 ldquoОт эрастианизма к тракта-рианизму Церковь Англии в конце XVIII mdash первой половине XIX вrdquo

Вестник СПбГУ История 2019 Т 64 Вып 4 1339

Keywords ancien regime Anglicanism anticlericalism Church of England French Revolu-tion H More social subordination

Англиканская апология старого порядка в Англии

В Н Барышников В Н Борисенко М С Стецкевич

Для цитирования Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Stetckevich M S Anglican Apology of the An-cien Regime in England Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета История 2019 Т 64 Вып 4 С 1338ndash1354 httpsdoiorg102163811701spbu022019411

В настоящее время в историографии прочно утвердилось понятие laquoдолгий XVIII векraquo используемое для характеристики временного отрезка английской истории верхней хронологической границей которого является Славная революция 1688ndash1689 гг а ниж-ней mdash парламентская реформа 1832 г Вслед за Дж Кларком многие исследователи до-пускают использование термина laquoстарый порядокraquo (ancien regime) применительно к Англии данного периода естественно не отождествляя его с классическим фран-цузским вариантом В статье рассматривается вопрос о формах и методах апологии старого порядка духовенством Церкви Англии являвшейся одной из его главаных опор Важнейшими источниками являются епископские послания и парламентские выступления проповеди и памфлеты написанные англиканскими священниками Со-средоточивая внимание на четырех завершающих десятилетиях laquoдолгого XVIII векаraquo авторы приходят к выводу о том что защита существующего порядка как богоустанов-ленного незыблемости иерархического устройства и необходимости подчинения вла-сти рассматривались Церковью Англии в качестве одной из ее важнейших функций В конце XVIII в такая позиция вполне соответствовала преобладавшим обществен-ным настроениям определявшимся страхом перед возможностью повторения в стра-не событий Французской революции В период активизации радикального движения во второй половине 1810-х гг англиканская апология старого порядка пользовалась уже меньшей поддержкой В борьбе за первую парламентскую реформу (1830ndash1832 гг) позиция Церкви Англии вызвала небывалую волну антиклерикальных выступлений В то же время в среде духовенства значительно увеличилось по сравнению с концом XVIII mdash началом XIX в число сторонников реформ а также тех кто считал важней-шим возрождение Церкви Англии в качестве сакрального института (Оксфордское движение) В Викторианскую эпоху по мере ухода в прошлое самого старого порядка функция его защиты постепенно перестала рассматриваться духовенством сосредо-точившимся на осуществлении внутрицерковных реформ в качестве приоритетной Ключевые слова старый порядок англиканизм антиклерикализм Церковь Англии Французская революция Х Мор социальная субординация

Following the outstanding historians F Braudel and E Hobsbawm who seeking to identify more clearly a period of historical development extending beyond the calendar century used the term ldquothe long 16th centuryrdquo and ldquothe long 19th centuryrdquo modern re-searchers increasingly use the term ldquothe long 18th centuryrdquo1 This notion refers to the time period of English history the starting point of which is usually considered the Glorious Revolution of 1688ndash1689 and the final point mdash the Parliamentary reform of 1832 How-

1 See for example Jacob W M The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Century 1680ndash1840 Oxford 2007 OrsquoGorman F The Long Eighteenth Century British Political and Social History 1688ndash1832 London 2016

1340 Вестник СПбГУ История 2019 Т 64 Вып 4

ever actively using the term itself researchers are far from agreement about the assess-ment of the role of the long 18th century in British history The judgment expressed in 1981 by M Rosen that in the 18th century ldquoThe English bourgeoisie secured its political hegemonyrdquo and ldquogenerated the first successful capitalist state in world historyrdquo2 in the light of modern historiographic trends looks like an anachronism Already in the 1970s B Hilton convincingly showed that even Lord Liverpoolrsquos administration (1812ndash1827) for a long time considered the defense of ldquolanded interestrdquo rather than support of industrial development the main political goal3 G Kitson Clark and J Cookson actively used the term ldquothe old orderrdquo in their research moreover the former extended the time frame of the period up to the middle of the 19th century4 But the most decisive blow to the notions of the long 18th century as an era of bourgeois progress and industrialization became the voluminous work of J Clark published in 19855 This book was later released in a second extended edition6

Clarkrsquos concept sparked such a lively controversy that as noted by J Black no two scholars on eighteenth-century Britain сan meet anywhere in the world without discuss-ing his works7 The main idea of Clark is such the English society of the long 18th century was ldquoAnglican aristocratic and monarchical Gentlemen the Church of England and the Crown commanded an intellectual and social hegemonyrdquo8 In English culture standards of a rural society dominated hierarchy and paternalism remained industrialization did not reach serious scale9 By using the term ldquoconfessional staterdquo Clark understands it not just as the status of the Church of England but as the dominance of idea that religion should be the basis of society and the legislative process10 Clarkrsquos concept was initially harshly criticized11 but after a certain time it turned out that many researchers rejecting some extremes of Clarkrsquos concept (especially the thesis that the fall of the old order in 1832 was caused not by its internal erosion but rather by a coincidence of political circumstances) agreed with the possibility of using the term ldquoancien regimerdquo in relation to the long 18th century in Britain naturally without identifying it with the classic French version12

In this regard it seems quite appropriate to talk about the English model or version of the ancien regime Noting its specific features it is necessary to emphasize the softness of the ldquoconfessional staterdquo which provided Roman Catholics and dissenters with freedom

2 Rosen M The Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie England 1688ndash1721 Science amp Society 1981 Vol 45 No 1 P 25 27

3 Hilton B Corn Cash Commerce Economic Policies of the Tory Governments 1815ndash30 Oxford 1980

4 Kitson Clark G Churchmen and Condition of England 1832ndash1885 The Old Regime to the Modern State London 1973 Cookson J E Lord Liverpoolrsquos administration The crucial years 1815-1822 London 1975 P 12ndash14

5 Clark J C D English Society 1688ndash1832 Ideology Social Structure and Political Practice during the Ancien Regime Cambridge 1985

6 Clark J C D English Society 1660ndash1832 Religion Ideology and Politics during the Ancien Regime Cambridge 2000

7 Black J Englandrsquos Ancien Regime History Today 1988 Vol 38 no 3 P 51 8 Clark J C D English Society 1688ndash1832hellip P 7 9 Ibid P 70ndash87 10 Clark J C D English Society 1660ndash1832hellip P 26ndash34 11 Innes J Jonathan Clark Social History and Englandrsquos ldquoAncien Regimerdquo Past amp Present 1987

No 115 P 165ndash200 12 See for example Porter R Georgian Britain an Ancien Regime British Journal for Eighteenth

Century Studies 1992 Vol 15 P 141ndash144 OrsquoGorman F The Long Eighteenth Centuryhellip P 180ndash182


of worship the vagueness of the very concept of ldquoaristocracyrdquo since it included not only ti-tle-holders but also a significant part of landowners The circumstance on which G Kitson Clark focused attention also seems essential the wide distribution of ldquothe concept that an unequal order of society had been established by Godrdquo13

One of the most important pillars of the ancien regime was the Church of England which had the status of ldquoby Law Establishedrdquo and was often referred to simply as ldquoThe Establishmentrdquo by contemporaries In the House of Lords there were 2 archbishops and 24 bishops If we consider that for most of the 18th century the number of members of the upper House slightly exceeded 200 the voices of the prelates meant quite a lot Appoint-ments to episcopal posts were often political with the origin and protection being the most crucial priorities According to N Ravitch and R A Soloway at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries the overwhelming majority of the prelates were associated with land elite by origin andor family ties14

The number of ordinary clergy was 15 000ndash18 000 A clear division into parties a fierce controversy between them will begin later in the 1830s In the last decades of the long 18th century the differences between the largest group mdash the ldquoOrthodoxrdquo (using the terminology of N Murray) which did not have a clear theological views and regarded the Church of England primarily as the Establishment15 High Church (which emphasized the importance of tradition including the pre-Reformational) Evangelicals (who did not attach great importance to tradition) and Latitudinarians (who offered very broad version of Christianity) were in comparison with the subsequent period rather blurred

Almost all priests were graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Universities and possess-ing by 1830 an average income of pound 275 a year16 not only belonged to the gentlemen but only slightly differed including their way of life from landed gentry17 From the end of the 18th century there had been a significant increase in the number of priests who performed the functions of justices of peace who exercised judicial authority and functions of local self-government in the counties By the early 1830s priests had already constituted 20ndash30 of the corps of justices of the peace and in some counties this figure exceeded 40 18 Very often clergymen were known to the local population precisely in this capacity and not as pastors It is significant that the priests were assigned the function to read govern-ment proclamations in parish churches19 All these circumstances made both the higher and lower Anglican clergy obvious defenders of the ancien regime

The theme of the ancien regimersquos apology by the Anglican clergy is not overlooked by researchers First of all we should mention the works of such scholars as G Best G Kit-

13 Kitson Clark G Churchmen and Condition of Englandhellip P 9 14 Ravitch N The Social Origins of the French and English Bishops in the Eighteenth Century The

Historical Journal 1965 Vol 8 no 3 P 319ndash320 Soloway R A Prelates and People Ecclesiastical Social Thought in England 1783ndash1852 London 1969 P 7ndash8

15 Murray N U The Influence of the French Revolution on the Church of England and its Rivals PhD Thesis Oxford 1975 P 4ndash9

16 Jacob W M The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Centuryhellip P 143 17 Russell A The Clerical Profession London 1989 P 33ndash3518 Evans E J Some Reasons for the Growth of English Rural Anti-clericalism Past amp Present 1975

No 66 P 103ndash104 Gilbert A D Religion and Society in Industrial England Church Chapel and Social Change 1740ndash1914 London 1976 P 133

19 Jacob W M The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Centuryhellip P 301


son Clark R A Soloway and R Hole20 J Clark also paid considerable attention to the ex-amination of this issue21 However the subject does not seem to have been exhausted The aforementioned authors either focused their attention on the entire long 18th century (R Hole J Clark) or included in their research a large part of the Victorian era (R A Solo-way G Kitson Clark) Meanwhile in the history of the long 18th century there should be distinguished a period covering its past four decades when the apology of the ancien reacutegime was the most intense Within it we can identify three peak periods

The first period was the epoch of the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars (especially 1789ndash1793) the second mdash the time of intensive radical agitation in favor of Parliamentary reform (1816ndash1819) and finally the third mdash the struggle for the first Par-liamentary reform (1830ndash1832) Although many arguments references to certain texts of Holy Scripture and final conclusions were often repeated each period had its own spe-cifics The main goal of this article is to analyze texts (first of all sermons and episcopal charges) which were released by the Anglican clergy in order to identify both the core aspects and the peculiarities of the apology of the ancien regime during each of the above-mentioned critical periods of the final part of the long 18th century

The fact of the enormous influence of the French Revolution of the late 18th century on the ideological political economic and religious development of England is general-ly recognized22 Contemporaries also did not doubt the reality of the serious impact of the French events on the situation in England A Whig politician lawyer and litterateur H Cockburn (1779ndash1854) recalled that ldquothe Revolution in Francehellip was or was made the all in all Every thing not this or that thing but literally every thing was soaked in this one eventrdquo23 If English public opinion initially was rather positive about events in France including dissenting pastors and even some Catholic priests24 the position of the clergy of the Established Church was different Only liberally-minded bishop R Watson expressed the hope that as a result of the Revolution ldquothe despotism which yet subsists in Europe other nations will soon be everywhere changed into a lawful rule and right supremacyrdquo25

Already in the first public judgments of the Anglican clergy about the French Revo-lution one can find assessments that subsequently will be repeated many times and also a search for possible barriers to the transfer of the French experience to England In the sermon preached by W Jones (October 20 1789) a clear distinction is made between ldquothe power of governmentrdquo and ldquothe power of the peoplerdquo Only the first is ldquoordained of Godrdquo and ldquothe gift of God to nation that serveth himrdquo while the second ldquois his curse upon the disobedient who are departed from himrdquo26 It is the second form of power that is being established in France now but it can only lead to the assertion of tyranny in its worst

20 Best G F A Temporal Pillars Queen Annersquos Bounty the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Church of England Cambridge 1964 Р 137ndash171 Kitson Clark G Churchmen and Condition of Englandhellip Р 24ndash226 Soloway R A Prelates and PeoplehellipР 19ndash348 Hole R Pulpits Politics and Public Order in England 1760ndash1832 Cambridge 1989

21 Clark J C D English Society 1660ndash1832hellip P 256ndash31722 The most important contemporary research works were analyzed in the historiographical essay

by E MacLeod See MacLeod E British Attitudes to the French Revolution The Historical Journal 2007 Vol 50 P 689ndash709

23 Cockburn H Memorials of His Time New York 1856 P 8224 Hole R Pulpits Politics and Public Order in Englandhellip P 99 25 Watson R Miscellaneous Tracts on Religious Political and Agricultural Subjects Vol 2 London

1815 P 15026 Jones W Sermons Practical Doctrinal and Expository London 1829 P 163


form27 Jones stresses ldquothe Gospel knows of no such government as a commonwealth In the New Testament kings as supreme and those who were sent by kingshellip are pointed out as the proper objects of civil obediencerdquo28 Therefore the most important task of the clergy in the present conditions (ldquotimeshellip are bad and daily altering for the worserdquo) Jones sees in the following ldquowe should endeavour to make the people aware of and admonish them still to pray for kings and all that are in authority as Christians did of old and as the Church of England directs us to do nowrdquo29

Dean of Canterbury G Horne defended the idea of submission in equally definite ex-pressions In his sermon also preached in October 1789 he stressed that it doesnrsquot matter whether the government was chosen by the people or not ldquothe law of God enjoins obedi-ence to every government settled according to the constitution of the country in which it subsistsrdquo30 Therefore ldquoalthough government may sometimes be bad rebellion generally be worserdquo31

Undoubtedly the theme of the necessity of submission to power was not new and such sermons had been read before But in the considerable part of the 18th century the Anglican clergy emphasizing the God-given nature of state power at the same time men-tioned the possibility of correcting some of its forms which enabled to give a satisfactory explanation of the events of the Glorious Revolution Now the accents were placed differ-ently The focus was on the inadmissibility of any attempts to reform the government the divinity of the monarchial form of government and the condemnation of republicanism

The sermon of C Bayley is quite indicative Constant teaching of submission to exist-ing power is characterized by him as the ldquoduty of every Christian pastorrdquo32 Recognizing the existence of exceptional cases that make obedience impossible Bayley simultaneously notes ldquoif there be danger of tying too hard the knot of allegiance to the Sovereign there is far greater danger of making it too looserdquo33 The preacher calls the flock to dread ldquoinnova-tions either in religion or civil governmentrdquo34 and ldquomeddle not with those who are given to change nor with their publicationsrdquo35

In a sermon preached in the House of Lords on January 30 1793 ( the day of the ex-ecution of Charles I (1649) and nine days after the guillotine of Louis XVI) Bishop of St Davidrsquos S Horsley focused on criticizing the contractual ideas of peoplersquos sovereignty That was the prevailing false notion that ldquoKings are the Servants of the Peoplerdquo36 which led both monarchs to death and their countries mdash to adversity from which England in the 17th century managed to happily quit37 Now ldquoour Constitution exempts her Kings from the degrading necessity of being accountable to the Subjectrdquo38 The situation in France

27 Ibid P 167ndash168 28 Ibid P 16929 Ibid P 17130 The Works of the Right Reverend George Horne Vol 3 London 1818 P 387 31 Ibid P 39232 Bayley C Religion and Loyalty inseparable Manchester [S n] 1792 P 633 Ibid P 934 Ibid P 635 Ibid P 2236 Horsley S A Sermon Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal on January 30 1793

London 1793Р 19 37 Ibid P 20ndash26 38 Ibid P 20ndash21


was characterized by him in such a manner ldquoHer Government demolished Her Altars overthrown hellip Atheists directing her councilsrdquo39

The assessment of the French Revolution as ldquogodlessrdquo often expressed in a ratherfer-vent manner was commonplace in the speeches of both prelates and rank-and-file clergy S Horsley was especially active stressing that in France ldquoatheistical conspiracyrdquo was not aimed at overthrowing ldquocorruptionsrdquo of the Roman Catholic Church but at destroying ldquoevery thing that is good amiable and holy in Christianityrdquo40

Naturally the overwhelming majority of the Anglican clergy evaluated the war with France as just war Thus Bishop of Norwich C Manners-Sutton without denying that war is evil in principle at the same time noted the fundamental difference between the current and previous conflicts with France Now the war is waged against infidelity per se Defining the French as ldquoHeathen nationrdquo41 Bishop summarized ldquoit is the defence of our homes and families of our laws our liberty and above all our religionrdquo42 In conclusion he expressed the hope that God would bestow ldquonerve and strength to our arms and wisdom and to our counselsrdquo43 In the instructions addressed to the clergy the struggle with the French was characterized as ldquojust and necessary warrdquo waged with the goal of ldquomaintenance of every Ordinance Divine and Human essential to the well-being of Manrdquo44

The apology of the old order included also the exposure of the internal enemy Tradi-tional anti-Catholic phobias temporarily weakened and now dissenters (nonconformists) began to appear as the main force that threatened the established order Interestingly an-ti-dissentersrsquo phobias large-scale at the beginning of the century (The Sacheverell riots 1710) gradually subsided and a growing number of votes were given in Parliament for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts mdash the most important statutes taken at the end of the 17th century that restricted the rights of nonconformists However in 1790 another attempt of repeal suffered a crushing defeat and the majority for the preservation of Acts amounted to almost 200 votes45

This circumstance was due to the fact that many dissenting preachers (R Price J Priestley R Hall) not only welcomed the French Revolution in enthusiastic expressions but also expressed the hope for reforms in England aimed at the expansion of religious freedom political and civil rights in England During the Parliamentary debates the fu-ture famous author of ldquoReflections on the Revolution in Francerdquo E Burke (1729ndash1797) delivered a lengthy speech against the repeal of Acts in which he reproached dissenters with the intention to undermine the existing order and above all mdash to deprive the Church of England of her established position46 This kind of public sentiment was fully supported by the Established Church

39 Ibid P 2240 The Charges of Samuel Horsley Late Lord Bishop of St Asaph delivered at Several Visitations of

the Dioceses of St Davidrsquos Rochester and StAsaph Dundee 1813 P 136ndash137 41 Manners-Sutton C A Sermon Preached on Friday February 28th 1794 London 1794 P 14 42 Ibid P 20 43 Ibid P 20 44 A Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to Almighty God to be used in all Churches and Chapels

throughout England hellip on Tuesday the nineteenth day of December 1797 London 1797 P 6ndash7 45 See e g Watts M R The Dissenters From the Reformation to the French revolution Oxford 1978

P 482ndash49046 The Parliamentary History of England from the earliest period to the year 1803 Vol 28 London

1816 P 432ndash443


The clergy of the Church of England always viewed dissenters as schismatics but now the attacks on them turned into a large-scale campaign Priest E Tatham called the dissenters ldquofalse prophetsrsquo who ldquounder the appearance of religionrdquo try to undermine the Church and ldquoState which is so admirably constituted whoever instead of the Love of our King of our Country and of each other are labouring to Promote Hatred Variance Em-ulationshellip whoeverhellip would introduce Sedition and Rebellionrdquo47 The statement of the existence of a rigid connection between being outside the Church of England and political disloyalty is also characteristic of other Anglican sermons The priest T Bancroft asserted that it was even impossible to call non-conformist pastors ldquoTeachers of Religion though they wear the garb and affect the namerdquo48 They were accused of borrowing French expe-rience pushing the country onto the disastrous path of undermining the constitutional order49

Anti-dissentersrsquo sentiments received practical expression in the actions of so-called ldquoChurch and King mobsrdquo The major riots occurred in July 1791 in Birmingham where the main object of the attack was a famous scientist naturalist and at the same time Uni-tarian minister J Priestley who continued to voice public approval of the ideas of the French Revolution The Unitarian chapel the house of Priestley and his laboratory were destroyed and he himself was forced to flee50 The modern researcher G Koabel without denying the significance of political and in some cases socio-economic motives in the ac-tions of the loyalist mob at the same time points out religious reason as the most import-ant (especially in Oxford and Cambridge riots in the winter of 1792ndash1793)51 He shows convincingly that the level of clerical participation in Loyalist Associations organized in early 1790s was very high and in some cases the priests were leaders of these structures52 It is less arguable that Tatham was directly responsible for the Oxford riots although the fact that he repeated his fiery ldquoSermon Suitable to the Timesrdquo four times in four different Oxford churches53 certainly deserves attention

One of the most important directions of Anglican apology of the ancien regime was the upholding of the idea of the inviolability of the God-established social hierarchy The idea that God gave every man rich and poor their proper station in society was also not new But under the influence of the French Revolution it came to the fore ldquothe distinc-tions of high and low rich and poor are the appointments of Divine Providencerdquo (bishop G Pretyman- Tomline)54 ldquothat there should be high and low rich and poor in the same society is a decree of the Almighty fixed and uniforrdquo (warden of Winchester College and future bishop G Huntingford)55

Up to this point we have quoted statements of clergymen who belonged to the ldquoOr-thodoxrdquo and High Church parties in the Church of England In general the Evangeli-

47 Tatham E A Sermon Suitable for the Times London 1792 P 15 48 Bancroft T A Sermon preached at the Cathedral church in Chester Manchester 1793 P 7 49 Ibid P 8ndash14 50 See e g Rose R B The Priestley Riots of 1791 Past and Present 1960 No 18 P 68ndash8851 Koabel G Religious loyalism The Anglican Church and the conservative movement of 1792-3

A Thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History Regina [S n] 2009 P 72ndash7452 Ibid P 35ndash66 53 Ibid P 76ndash79 54 Pretyman-Tomline G A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln in May and June

1794 London 1794 Р 21 55 Huntingford G Twelve Discourses on Different Subjects London 1795 P 298


cals supported the significance of the protective functions of the Established Church but there were certain nuances They put forward a call to abandon formal religion in favor of sincere and genuine faith A vivid expression of the public position of the Evangelicals was a tract ldquoA Practical View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christiansrdquo written by W Wilberforce (1759ndash1833) mdash a politician who gained widespread publicity as a fighter for the abolition of the slave trade ldquoChristianity calls on usrdquo Wilberforce pointed out ldquonot merely in general to be religious and moral but specially to believe the doctrines imbibe the principles and practise the precepts of Christrdquo56 Touching on social aspects Wilberforce pointed out that lower orders of society should be ldquodiligent humble patientrdquo They should be told that their ldquomore lowly path has been allotted to them by God that it is their part faithfully to discharge its duties and contentedly to bear its inconveniencesrdquo57

The problems of the preservation of the social hierarchy were most thoroughly touched upon in the works of an evangelical religious writer Hannah More (1745ndash1833) If Wilberforce addressed primarily to the English elite the writings of More were prepared for the low classes of society After the publication of the second part of Thomas Painersquos tract ldquoRights of manrdquo (1792) in which the idea of the need for representative government was developed in relation to England Bishop of London B Porteus turned to More She later recalled that bishop declared ldquothat I should repent it on my death bed if I who knew so much of the habits and sentiments of the lower order of people did not write some little thing tending to open their eyes under their present wild impressions of liberty and equalityrdquo58 The first experience of this kind of writing was the pamphlet ldquoVillage Politicsrdquo (1792) written (under the pseudonym ldquoWill Chiprdquo) in the form of a dialogue between two villagers mdash Jack and Tom Jack convinces Tom that the latterrsquos desire to achieve in England the approval of liberty equality rights of man and ldquogeneral reformhellipthe same as they have got in Francerdquo59 is completely groundless since the country already possesses ldquoa fine constitutionrdquo60 and on the other side of the Channel tyranny murder and atheism are reigning61 Jack tells Tom ldquoInstead of indulging discontent because another is richer than I in this worldhellip I read my Bible go to church and think of a treasure in heavenrdquo62 The pamphlet ends with a quotation from the New Testament ldquoStudy to be quiet work with your own hands and mind your own businessrdquo [1 Thess 411]63

This New Testament text could be an epigraph to ldquoCheap Repository Tractsrdquo (1795ndash1798) The total number of Tracts sold by March 1796 had reached 2000000 copies64 Tracts consistently reveal the main idea of More the poor should not complain about their fate perceiving poverty as virtue and at the same time they should work hard not be interested in politics diligently attend church The hero of the most famous tract ldquoThe Shepherd of Salisbury Plainrdquo is sure that God ldquohad state and condition of life at his choice

56 Wilberforce W A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of this Country Contrasted with Real Christianity London 1797 P 16

57 Ibid P 405 58 The Life of Hannah More with Selections from Her Correspondence London 1862 P 17459 Will Chip Village Politics York 1793 P 3ndash4 60 Ibid P 761 Ibid P 14ndash17 62 Ibid P 13ndash14 63 Ibid P 1864 Porter R Enlightenment Britain and Creation of the Modern World London 2001 P 468


and chose a hard one while I only submit to the lot that is appointed merdquo65 The Bible for Shepherd is his ldquomeat drink and companyrdquo66 As an ideal of social harmony More expects a situation when rich and poor ldquoRaise many a pure and holy vow In gratitude to Godrdquo67

Speaking about the affinity although not a complete identity between the positions of the ldquoOrthodoxrdquo High Churchmen and the Evangelicals it is worth mentioning the third Latitudinarian party in the Church of England In the 1790s it experienced a signif-icant numerical reduction and became almost indistinguishable from the ldquoOrthodoxrdquo68 One of the most well-known latitudinarians archdeacon W Paley in 1791 addressed to the lower classes of English society with a pamphlet in which he stressed that they should not try ldquoto covet the stations or fortunes of the richhellip by force or through the medium of the public uproarrdquo because in the present circumstances it is equivalent ldquoto venture out to sea in a storm but to venture for nothingrdquo69 Bishop R Watson priest C Wyvill retained a commitment to the idea of reforms including Parliamentary although they understood their impossibility in the nearest future Some latitudinarian priests left the Church of England and became Unitarians70

But there were ldquoblack sheep in the familyrdquo of Anglican clergy First of all such figure as priest V Knox (1752ndash1821) should be noted In 1795 he prepared the voluminous tract ldquoThe Spirit of Despotismrdquo which was published in the USA In England it appeared pri-vately in a small number of copies and without the consent of the author The central idea of the tract is that ldquospirit of despotismrdquo took deep roots in England finding expression in an attack on liberties of the people In particular Knox not opposing the need for loyalty condemns (clearly referring to the priests of the Church of England) those who ldquorepre-senthellip loyalty as a religious duty partaking the nature of divine worshiprdquo71 Knoxrsquos work ends with the following conclusion ldquolet parliament be reformed This measure willhellip give permanency to the throne and happiness to the people Kings will be republicans in the true sense of that term and the spirit of despotism become the spirit of philanthropy Ser-mons which made the emphasis not on the justification and justice of the war on the part of England but on the fact that war as such is contrary to the spirit of Christianity can be considered another form of disagreement with government policies Priest J Williams read several sermons of this kind in one of which he stated ldquoThe sword of Christianity is a word of God and it will not admit of carnal warfare either for its propagation of its defencerdquo72

Turning to the next designated period of intensification of activity of the Anglican clergy in the struggle for preservation of the ancien regime it should be emphasized that many things in the late 1810s remained unchanged Сlerics of different ranks continued to teach submission and subordination based on the same texts of the Holy Scripture as before Provebs 2421ndash22 1 Peter 217 Romans 13 14 1 Timothy 2 2 Titus 31 It is

65 Cheap Repository Tracts Entertaining moral and religious London 1807 Р 4 66 Ibid P 7 67 Ibid P 431 68 See e g Murray N U The Influence of the French Revolution on the Church of Englandhellip Р 122 69 Paley W Reasons for contentment Addressed to the British public Newcastle 1819 Р 12 70 See e g Gascoigne J Anglican Latitudinarianism and Political Radicalism in the Late Eighteenth

Century History 1986 Vol 71 P 22ndash38 71 The Works of Vicesimus Knox 1824 Vol 5 London P 186 72 Williams J War the Stumbling Block of a Christian оr the Absurdity of Defending Religion by the

Sword London 1795 P 6


significant that in 1820 the abovementioned sermons by W Jones and G Horne read in 1789 were republished being included in the collection entitled ldquoChristian Politicsrdquo The editor of this book stressed the need for their publication ldquoin these unquiet timesrdquo73

Impressed by the crowded meetings during which radical speakers put forward the requirements of universal suffrage and parliamentary reform H More prepared an expanded and modified edition of Cheap Repository Tracts with the subtitle ldquosuited to the present timesrdquo Lower orders were lucidly explained that in the case of ldquoreformsrdquo and ldquochangesrdquo ldquoBritain a name now admirrsquod by the world To the pit of destruction would quickly be hurlrsquodrdquo74 The idea of undesirability of any changes in the Church of England was persistently pursued The hero of one of the ballads ldquothe loyal subjectrdquo believes that the Church ldquowants attendingrdquo and absolutely does not need ldquomendingrdquo75

The French Revolution continued to be seen as the source of all modern upheavals and misfortunes76 but the clergy now saw the main danger in the spread of ldquoatheismrdquo and ldquoinfidelityrdquo in the country noting with alarm the emergence of ldquoblasphemousrdquo and ldquoseditiousrdquo publications77 According to clerics there was an inextricable connection between blasphemy and sedition Bishop of Ely B Sparke emphasized ldquothe transition from infidelity to disloyalty is but too easy they who do not fear God will not long honour the Kingrdquo78 Under these conditions the bishoprsquos most important task for the clergy was to fulfill its functions as ldquoappointed guardians of religion that bulwark of every staterdquo79

Recognizing the preservation of the apologetic tendency with regard to the ancien regime as the most important it is necessary to note some changes in comparison with the 1790s Firstly the Anglican clergy found it necessary to respond to the changing face of the country that was a result of the rapid growth of the population and industry In 1815ndash1817 two pamphlets of chaplain of Chelsea hospital R Yates were published The author while continuing to develop traditional ideas about the priority of the protective function of the Church of England (the priests were called by him ldquopreventive and corrective policerdquo80 and the Church itself mdash the ldquobest guardian of our civil as well as Ecclesiastical libertiesrdquo81) spoke in favor of building new churches in highly populated areas82 The Parliament supported his initiative and in 1818 a considerable sum of pound 1 million was granted for the construction of new churches Of course this was a choice in favor of an extensive rather than intensive (implementation of inner-church reforms) development dictated by the desire to provide an opportunity for the population of industrial areas to receive ldquoinstructionsrdquo ldquoupon which the very Existence of Religion the Stability of the Church of England and the security of the State do most essentially dependrdquo83 However the Church already acknowledged new realities connected with industrialization

73 Christian Politics Oxford 1820 P 2 74 More H Cheap Repository Tracts suited to the present times London 1819 P 142 75 Ibid P 14476 See for example Van Mildert W An historical view of the rise and progress of infidelity 1839

Vol 1 Oxford P 336ndash337 77 See for example Sparke B A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Ely London 1817

Р 7 Howley W A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of London London 1818 P 12ndash13 78 Sparke B A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Elyhellip P 879 Ibid P 980 Yates R The Church in Danger London 1815 P 132 81 Ibid P 5 82 Ibid P 126ndash128 83 Ibid P 212 Yates R The Basis of National Welfare London 1817 Р 44


Secondly as E Lyon notes in spite of the publication of a significant number of sermons and charges in which the idea of necessity of submission and contentment was repeated constantly interest in literature of this kind decreased markedly84 An indirect confirmation of this thesis is the fact that at the end of the 1810s the character and direction of the unrest had nothing in common with the actions of the loyalist ldquoChurch and King mobsrdquo of the late 18th century Riots arose as a rule during mass meetings the participants of which protested against the hard living conditions and economic distress andor demanded electoral reform (the Spa Fields riots 1816 Peterloo massacre 1819) The emergence of such radical magazines as ldquoThe Black Dwarf rdquo ldquoGorgonrdquo which criticized the Church of England as the engine of the State and ruling oligarchy also should be noted In one of the issues of ldquoThe Black Dwarf rdquo the clergy of the Established Church was condemned for the fact that it ldquopreach blind submission and obediencehellip exhort people not to think for things are as well as they can behellip censure reason as erring guide and politics as things with which poor men nothing to dordquo85 In the 1790s mass publications promoting such views were unthinkable

Thirdly the attitude towards nonconformists had seriously changed Accusations of intentions to undermine the position of the Church of England against the dissenters were still aired 86 but they were not considered already as a serious threat to the existing order R Yates regarded ldquoliberty of consciencerdquo as a measure that ensures social stability and strengthens the status of the Church of England which in his opinion should be recognized by ldquojudicious and liberal Dissentersrdquo87 Bishop of Gloucester H Ryder admitted albeit with some reservations the cooperation of Anglican priests and dissenting pastors within the framework of the Bible Society88

Fourthly there appeared some priests who were ready to criticize publicly the existing government accusing it of non-Christian behavior Archdeacon of Norwich H Bathurst condemned both the external (the imposition of Louis XVIII to the people of France) and the internal (restriction of press freedom) policy of the administration of Lord Liverpool in harsh expressions ldquoTerror instead of reason and conciliation is the sole instrument of the present Administrationhellip Ministers instead of any attempt to conciliate or reform havehellip only procured laws to stop the mouths of opponentsrdquo89

The fact of expressing such opinions publicly is unique but not the fact of their existence among the clergy of the State Church In 1825 the latitudinarian deacon T Arnold headmaster of a school in Laleham in private correspondence called ldquodestruction of the feudal tyranny of the nobility and great menrdquo in France a ldquoblessingrdquo enough to compensate ldquofor the evils of thehellip Revolutionrdquo90 The scale of the spread of such views among the clergy should not be exaggerated but the fact of their emergence can be carefully considered a symptom of the approaching changes

The events of 1830ndash1832 were an ordeal for the Church of England The Parliamenta-ry reform was the final act of the Constitutional revolution of 1828ndash1832 which accord-

84 Lyon E Politicians in the Pulpit Christian Radicalism in Britain from the Fall of the Bastille to the Disintegration of Chartism London 1999 P 58ndash59

85 ldquoThe Black Dwarf rdquo 2104181986 See for example Howley W A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Londonhellip Р 13ndash14 87 Yates R The Basis of National Welfarehellip Р 170ndash17188 Ryder H A Charge delivered to the clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester Gloucester 1816 P 30ndash3389 Bathurst H Christianity and Present Politics London 1818 P 6390 Stanley A P The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold Vol 1 Boston 1862 P 81


ing to the words of the author of this term the British historian G Best led to the trans-formation of an ldquoan aristocratic semi-confessional statehellip to that of a semi-democratic liberal staterdquo91 The Anglican episcopate was so closely associated with the ancien regime that it opposed Parliamentary reform more strongly than the first two acts of the Con-stitutional revolution mdash repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828) and the Roman Catholic Emancipation (1829) These reforms undermined the constitutional monopoly of the Church of England and so affected it directly while the changing of the system of parliamentary representation mdash only indirectly The first bill expanding the political and civil rights of dissenters was approved by the House of Lords even without separation This clearly showed that times had changed and nonconformists were no longer perceived as a political threat even by bishops The Catholic Emancipation bill at the last stage was supported by 8 bishops (previously only 2) and 16 were against it

When the Parliamentary reform bill approved in the lower House was put to a vote at the House of Lords (October 7 1831) the overwhelming majority of the Anglican prel-ates (21 out of 23) cast their vote for its rejection Since the Reform Bill was rejected by a majority of 41 votes a significant part of the reformist-minded English public laid the main blame for the failure of the bill on the prelates In October-November 1831 a large-scale outbreak of anti-clericalism followed which England had not seen before Images of bishops were burned on the streets they were attacked by mobs windows were being broken in the houses of priests In Bristol the Episcopal Palace was burned on October 29ndash30 If the riots of the late 1810s were different from the actions of the ldquoChurch and King mobsrdquo the events of October-November 1831 were already complete opposite to them The Church of England became an incredibly unpopular institution ldquoIf we except the period which preceded the Churchrsquos overthrow in the time of Charles I there never was a time when the clergy were assailed with so much calumny and so much violence as they are at presentrdquo mdash wrote Bishop of Peterborough H Marsh92

The events of October mdash November 1831 made a strong impression on many prel-ates As a result during the discussion of the new version of the Reform Bill on April 13 1832 12 Anglican bishops voted ldquoforrdquo whereas 15 were against Proponents of the bill (for example Bishop of London C Blomfield) described it as a measure that could ldquoim-prove the Representation conciliate the affections of the peoplerdquo93 Opponents of the re-form however continued to defend the ancien regime by arguments that already became classical Bishop of Durham W Van Mildert complained of too active dissemination of knowledge among the lower classes leading to the desire ldquoto destroy institutions because they were ancient mdash a desire to set subject over the ruler and to trample ruler under the subjectrdquo94 Bishop of Rochester G Murray urged legislators not to yield to ldquomob clamourrdquo stressing that ldquothe lower classes should not be called into council they should not be suf-fered to interfere with matters connected with legislationrdquo95

The lower clergy reasoned similarly A modern scholar R Saunders quotes sermons of priests who belonged to different Anglican parties in which campaign for the reform

91 Best G The Constitutional Revolution 1828ndash1832 and its consequences for the Established Church Theology 1959 Vol 62 P 229

92 Marsh H A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Peterborough in July 1831 London 1831 P 7

93 Hansardrsquos Parliamentary Debates 1832 Vol 12 London P 27194 Ibid P 5095 Ibid P 401


was called ldquoa rebellion against Godrdquo destroying the principle of obedience to a superior power96 The future leader of the Oxford movement in the Church of England and at that moment mdash a priest and fellow of the Oxford University J H Newman called ldquode-velopment (as it is called) of the popular powerrdquo as sinful as the actions of the invaders since God ldquoforbids us to oppose constituted powerrdquo97 However now among the clergy an influential minority emerged not only thinking differently but also speaking in sup-port of Parliamentary reform If we talk about personalities it is a prebendary of Durham T Gisborne H Price curate of Christ Church Nedwood who was involved in a dispute between the manufacturers and weavers on the side of the latter in the 1820s and re-ceived a prison sentence for distributing ballads recognized as libellous A Wade vicar of St Nicholas Warwick who took an active part in the work of the Birmingham Political Union mdash the largest reform community The activity of these persons was discussed in details in the monograph of E Lyon98 To this group can also be added a liberal priest S Smith who spoke at meetings about the need for urgent correction of the decayed po-litical institutions99 as well as T Arnold who had become a priest by that time although he expressed support for the reform with great caution objecting to its consideration as a panacea for all ills100

It is possible to make a conclusion about how numerous the reformists were and the supporters of political transformations among the clergy using statistical data on the votes of Anglican priests at the parliamentary elections which were held thrice in 1830ndash1832 These data are fragmentary as they cover only 18 electoral districts out of about 500 where elections were actually held and reproduce the results of one or two electoral cam-paigns Avoiding the exact figures because in some cases dissenting pastors might have been included in the category of ldquoclergyrdquo the following can be stated For candidates from the Tory party who opposed the Reform Bill about 1100 votes were cast by clergymen of the Church of England and about 400 for the Whigs101 In percentage terms it looks like 73 versus 27 All these data can serve as confirmation of the conclusion that anti-re-form views prevailed over pro-reform positions in the clerical environment but not as the exclusiveness of the latter

Conclusion

The feeling of the imminent collapse of the Church of England at least as a state institution was was very widespread Historians often cite the following phrase from the letter of T Arnold (1832) ldquoThe Church as it now stands no human power can saverdquo102 This as we know did not happen and for many reasons Among the most important are the absence of any desire from the side of Whig party to move along this path preferring the careful implementation of the internal reform of the Church of England with the aim

96 Saunders R God and the Great Reform Act Preaching against Reform 1831ndash32 Jour nal of British Studies 2014 Vol 53 P 391ndash394

97 Newman J H Sermons Chiefly on the Theory of Religious Belief Preached before the University of Oxford London 1844 P 140

98 Lyon E Politicians in the Pulpithellip P 87ndash88 101ndash11199 The Works of the Rev Sydney Smith 1840 Vol 4 London P 376ndash385 392ndash411 100 The Miscellaneous Works of Thomas Arnold New York 1846 P 413101 Vincent J R Pollbooks How Victorians Voted Cambridge 1967102 Stanley A P The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold Vol 1 P 283


of increasing its effectiveness as well as the understanding of the need for serious chang-es that had matured in the church environment itself ldquoThe people must be gained or all is lostrdquo emotionally noted in 1833 the Church magazine ldquoThe British Criticrdquo103 Ways of gaining confidence were various The Oxford movement which started in 1833 focused on the restoration and development of the sacral potential of Anglicanism and had a huge impact on its further development104 Although J H Newman largely retained his paternalistic convictions he did not consider that the apology of the existing order was the prime task of the Church ldquoThe Gospel then has come to us not merely to make us good subjects good citizens good members of society but to make us members of the New Jerusalemrdquo and ldquofellow citizens with the saints and of the household of Godrdquo105

Another part of the clergy headed by Bishop Blomfield pursued in collaboration with the Whig and Tory governments internal Church reforms aimed at increasing its efficiency R Saunders points out that in discussions about the second (1867) and the third (1884ndash1885) reforms of Parliament mostly utilitarian arguments were made and unlike in the early 1830s ldquono special role was asserted for government itself as a religious agentrdquo106 Nevertheless as G Kitson Clark showed the sermons in which an unequal or-der of society was represented as God-given continued to sound after 1832107 This is hardly surprising since the process of disappearance of the English ancien regime was rather slow and gradual as in some other European countries108 But from the 1830s the clergy including the episcopate began to show an increasing interest in solving social problems and the themes of submission and subordination ceased to act as central

References

Bancroft T A Sermon preached at the Cathedral church in Chester Manchester Harrop 1793 15 p Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Stetckevich M S The Oxford Movement and the English Reformation

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University History 2017 vol 62 no 4 pp 826ndash838 Bathurst H Christianity and Present Politics London Printed for J Ridgway 1818 72 p Bayley C Religion and Loyalty inseparable Manchester [S n] 1792 24 p Best G F A Temporal Pillars Queen Annersquos Bounty the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Church of En-

gland Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1964 600 рBest G The Constitutional Revolution 1828ndash1832 and its consequences for the Established Church Theol-

ogy 1959 vol 62 no 468 pр 226ndash234 Black J Englandrsquos Ancien Regime History Today 1988 vol 38 no 3 pp 43ndash51Clark J C D English Society 1688ndash1832 Ideology Social Structure and Political Practice during the Ancien

Regime Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1985 449 р Clark J C D English Society 1660ndash1832 Religion Ideology and Politics during the Ancien Regime Cambridge

Cambridge University Press 2000 596 pCockburn H Memorials of His Time New York D Appleton and Company 1856 442 pCookson J E Lord Liverpoolrsquos administration The crucial years 1815ndash1822 London distributed by Chatto

and Windus 1975 422 p Evans E J Some Reasons for the Growth of English Rural Anti-clericalism Past amp Present 1975 no 66

pp 84ndash109

103 The British Critic 1833 Vol 14 No 28 P 453104 See e g Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Stetckevich M S The Oxford movement and the

English reformation Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University History 2017 Vol 62 iss 4 P 826ndash838 105 Newman J H Parochial Sermons Vol 4 London 1849 P 183106 Saunders R God and the Great Reform Acthellip P 399 107 Kitson Clark G Churchmen and Condition of Englandhellip P 9ndash11 108 Plenkov O Y Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Piankewich V L Adamova N E Prussian

phenomenon and its historical distortion Bylye gody 2016 Vol 39 no 1 P 196ndash203


Gascoigne J Anglican Latitudinarianism and Political Radicalism in the Late Eighteenth Century History 1986 vol 71 no 231 pp 22ndash38

Gilbert A D Religion and Society in Industrial England Church Chapel and Social Change 1740ndash1914 Lon-don Longman 1976 251 p

Hilton B Corn Cash Commerce Economic Policies of the Tory Governments 1815ndash30 Oxford University Press 1980 320 p

Hole R Pulpits Politics and Public Order in England 1760ndash1832Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1989 344 p

Horsley S A Sermon Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal on January 30 1793 London Printed for J Robson 1793 39 p

Howley W A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of London London Longman 1818 28 p Huntingford G Twelve Discourses on Different Subjects London Printed for T Cadell 1795 338 p Innes J Jonathan Clark Social History and Englandrsquos ldquoAncien Regimerdquo Past amp Present 1987 no 115

pp 165ndash200 Jacob W M The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Century 1680ndash1840 Oxford Oxford University

Press 2007 366 p Jones W Sermons Practical Doctrinal and Expository London Printed and Published by J F Dove 1829

600 p Kitson Clark G Churchmen and Condition of England 1832ndash1885 A Study in the Development of Social

Ideas and Practice from the Old Regime to the Modern State London Methuen 1973 373 p Koabel G Religious loyalism The Anglican Church and the conservative movement of 1792ndash3 A Thesis for

the degree of Master of Arts in History Regina [S n] 2009 108 p Lyon E Politicians in the Pulpit Christian Radicalism in Britain from the Fall of the Bastille to the Disintegra-

tion of Chartism London Routledge 1999 280 р MacLeod E British Attitudes to the French Revolution The Historical Journal 2007 vol 50 no 3 pp 689ndash

709 Manners-Sutton C A Sermon Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal on Friday February 28th

1794 London Printed for J Robson 1794 22 pMarsh H A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Peterborough in July 1831 London Rivingtons

1831 14 p More H Cheap Repository Tracts suited to the present times London Printed for F C and J Rivington 1819

160 p Murray N U The Influence of the French Revolution on the Church of England and its Rivals PhD Thesis

Oxford [S n] 1975 397 pNewman J H Sermons Chiefly on the Theory of Religious Belief Preached before the University of Oxford

London Francis and John Rivington 1844 354 р Newman J H Parochial Sermons Vol 4 London James Burns 1849 389 p OrsquoGorman F The Long Eighteenth Century British Political and Social History 1688ndash1832 London Blooms-

bury 2016 457 p Paley W Reasons for contentment Addressed to the laboring part of the British public Newcastle Printed by

E Walker 1819 12 p Plenkov O Y Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Piankewich V L Adamova N E Prussian phenomenon

and its historical distortion Bylye gody 2016 vol 39 no 1 pp 196ndash203 (In Russian) Porter R Georgian Britain an Ancien Regime British Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 1992 vol 15

pp 141ndash144Porter R Enlightenment Britain and Creation of the Modern World London Penguin 2001 752 p Pretyman-Tomline G A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln in May and June 1794 Lon-

don Printed for R Faulder 1794 25 рRavitch N The Social Origins of French and English Bishops in the Eighteenth Century The Historical

Journal 1965 vol 8 no 3 pp 309ndash325Rose R B The Priestley Riots of 1791 Past and Present 1960 no 18 pp 68ndash88Rosen M The Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie England 1688ndash1721 Science amp Society 1981 vol 45 no 1

pp 24ndash51 Russell A The Clerical Profession London Abingdon Press 1989 368 pRyder H A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester Gloucester Printеred by Walker and

Sons 1816 35 p Saunders R God and the Great Reform Act Preaching against Reform 1831ndash32 Journal of British Studies

2014 vol 53 pp 378ndash399


Soloway R A Prelates and People Ecclesiastical Social Thought in England 1783ndash1852 London Routledge 1969 480 p

Sparke B A Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Ely London Rivingtons 1817 24 p Stanley A P The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold Vol 1 Boston Ticknor and Fields 1862 378 рTatham E A Sermon Suitable to the Times London Rivington 1792 19 pVan Mildert W An historical view of the rise and progress of infidelity Vol 1 Oxford Printed by T Combe

1839 466 p Vincent J R Pollbooks How Victorians Voted Cambridge University Press 1967 206 pWatson R Miscellaneous Tracts on Religious Political and Agricultural Subjects Vol 2 London Printed by

Luke Hansard and Sons 1815 439 p Watts M R The Dissenters From the Reformation to the French revolution Oxford Clarendon Press 1978

561 p Wilberforce W A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christians in the Higher and

Middle Classes of this Country Contrasted with Real Christianity London Printed for T Cadell 1797 491 p

Will Chip [More H] Village Politics York Printed and sold bу G Walker 1793 18 p Williams J War the Stumbling-Block of a Christian Or the Absurdity of Defending Religion by the Sword

London Printed for T Cadell 1795 34 p Yates R The Basis of National Welfare London F C and J Rivington 1817 374 p Yates R The Church in Danger London Printed by Nichols Son and Bentley 1815 226 р

Received April 19 2019 Accepted September 9 2019

Статья поступила в редакцию 19 апреля 2019 г Рекомендована в печать 9 сентября 2019 г


Keywords ancien regime Anglicanism anticlericalism Church of England French Revolu-tion H More social subordination

Англиканская апология старого порядка в Англии

В Н Барышников В Н Борисенко М С Стецкевич

Для цитирования Baryshnikov V N Borisenko V N Stetckevich M S Anglican Apology of the An-cien Regime in England Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета История 2019 Т 64 Вып 4 С 1338ndash1354 httpsdoiorg102163811701spbu022019411

В настоящее время в историографии прочно утвердилось понятие laquoдолгий XVIII векraquo используемое для характеристики временного отрезка английской истории верхней хронологической границей которого является Славная революция 1688ndash1689 гг а ниж-ней mdash парламентская реформа 1832 г Вслед за Дж Кларком многие исследователи до-пускают использование термина laquoстарый порядокraquo (ancien regime) применительно к Англии данного периода естественно не отождествляя его с классическим фран-цузским вариантом В статье рассматривается вопрос о формах и методах апологии старого порядка духовенством Церкви Англии являвшейся одной из его главаных опор Важнейшими источниками являются епископские послания и парламентские выступления проповеди и памфлеты написанные англиканскими священниками Со-средоточивая внимание на четырех завершающих десятилетиях laquoдолгого XVIII векаraquo авторы приходят к выводу о том что защита существующего порядка как богоустанов-ленного незыблемости иерархического устройства и необходимости подчинения вла-сти рассматривались Церковью Англии в качестве одной из ее важнейших функций В конце XVIII в такая позиция вполне соответствовала преобладавшим обществен-ным настроениям определявшимся страхом перед возможностью повторения в стра-не событий Французской революции В период активизации радикального движения во второй половине 1810-х гг англиканская апология старого порядка пользовалась уже меньшей поддержкой В борьбе за первую парламентскую реформу (1830ndash1832 гг) позиция Церкви Англии вызвала небывалую волну антиклерикальных выступлений В то же время в среде духовенства значительно увеличилось по сравнению с концом XVIII mdash началом XIX в число сторонников реформ а также тех кто считал важней-шим возрождение Церкви Англии в качестве сакрального института (Оксфордское движение) В Викторианскую эпоху по мере ухода в прошлое самого старого порядка функция его защиты постепенно перестала рассматриваться духовенством сосредо-точившимся на осуществлении внутрицерковных реформ в качестве приоритетной Ключевые слова старый порядок англиканизм антиклерикализм Церковь Англии Французская революция Х Мор социальная субординация

Following the outstanding historians F Braudel and E Hobsbawm who seeking to identify more clearly a period of historical development extending beyond the calendar century used the term ldquothe long 16th centuryrdquo and ldquothe long 19th centuryrdquo modern re-searchers increasingly use the term ldquothe long 18th centuryrdquo1 This notion refers to the time period of English history the starting point of which is usually considered the Glorious Revolution of 1688ndash1689 and the final point mdash the Parliamentary reform of 1832 How-

1 See for example Jacob W M The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Century 1680ndash1840 Oxford 2007 OrsquoGorman F The Long Eighteenth Century British Political and Social History 1688ndash1832 London 2016





















































1816 P 432ndash443


















































Conclusion








References








pp 84ndash109































2014 vol 53 pp 378ndash399
































































1816 P 432ndash443


















































Conclusion








References








pp 84ndash109































2014 vol 53 pp 378ndash399





























































Conclusion








References








pp 84ndash109































2014 vol 53 pp 378ndash399















References








pp 84ndash109































2014 vol 53 pp 378ndash399







































2014 vol 53 pp 378ndash399












Anglican Apology of the Ancien Regime in England

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Transcript of Anglican Apology of the Ancien Regime in England